Model UN Simulation

My favorite part of the Model UN International Simulation was the meetings.  The meetings with other countries gave me a first hand use knowledge that I gained while studying and reviewing the material I learned.  It also gave me the opportunity to fully participate in the experience and to engage to a fully participate in the group experience. 

I also really liked trying to convince Hezbollah to attack Israel.  When we were trying to start a war it made it easier to be engaged and kept everyone busier than when we were just responding to the crazy news reports that were coming out.  It gave us a way to control our environment rather than just become a victim to it.  For example, we had to try numerous plans to try and get nukes before it actually happened, and then it took forever for the plan to actually happen.  But, creating other plans and carrying out other missions helped create a busier and more active Iran.

I wish that instead of a movie, we had a whole week of preparing on the Middle Eastern conflict.  The movie did help, but there is so much that occurs in the Middle East, that I would have liked to cover more of the history and more of the conflicts that have and are occurring there. 

Well, the first proud accomplishment our group had was receiving nuclear capabilities.  The staff would not accept any of our original plans, so we had to redo/make new plans for about 2 hours.  We spent most of the first day talking about nukes, and never gained access to them until the end of the second day. 

I was also proud of the deal that we made with China.  We allowed them to establish a Security Base near the gulf in return for 300,000 barrels of oil a day.  This fixed our trade deficit and gave our country extra money, which as the Minister of the Economy was the main objective of mine.  It also established an alliance with China that was proven to the rest of the world.  It was a very good deal that was made.

Iraq was a constant source of frustration for me.  From the very start, they were provoking Iran.  It all started with the problem over sharing water.  They wanted more access that we were not willing to give them.  Then they reached out to other countries to form an alliance against Iran.  When we finally did share more water, they claimed that we poisoned the water and that they were having an E coli outbreak. 

If there was anything that I wish we had done differently, I wish we had spent more time embracing Iraq.  I wish that we had received Nukes faster, and then bombed Iraq.  Maybe not even completely, but just enough to cause them to leave us alone.

The overall experience is very rewarding in how much you learn.  It causes you to think about International Relations from the role of the leaders and future plans, rather than just what happened in the past.